The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an... show more

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon.

3.5 starsI picked up this book because I saw a preview for the film. It looked interesting. The book was more than I was expecting. It's mostly about what happened after the infamous whale attack that brought down the ship. The author does a great job of delivering the facts. Sometimes it's a d...

by Nathaniel Philbrick Non-fiction This is a seafaring story based on the records of a real whaling ship, The Essex, which was the basis of the story Moby Dick. It's about a ship that actually was attacked by a whale, as recorded in the ship's log and private notes written by a cabin boy. My f...

In the Heart of the Sea is a true story about the Essex, a Nantucket whaling ship and its tragic encounter with an angry, revenge-seeking sperm whale. Since the movie was recently being released, my friend Eva and I decided to do a buddy read together. I'll admit I was impressed with the amount of r...

3.5 StarsThis was so sad. It could have been four-stars, but I don’t think Scott Brick has the right voice to narrate this book. His voice made it sound like he was reading a financial statement instead of a true story about a horrific event. I broke my own rule by seeing the movie before reading th...

I wanted to give this book a lower rating because of the poor transitions from observations on the persons in the scene (usually the Essex survivors, such as they were) to third-party sources of information augmented by the author's opinion that it was directly applicable to the original situation. ...

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